WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 29 (February 2010) - World of Xoops (WOX) - XOOPS News

World of Xoops (WOX): WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 29 (February 2010)

Posted by: MambaOn 2010/2/7 1:20:00 16521 reads

WOX - World Of Xoops

Welcome to the February 2010 issue of WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter - (see here previous versions)

As always, as the first thing in each newsletter we wanted to express our gratitude to all of you who have donated money to XOOPS Foundation! We truly appreciate your trust and support!

What a great start of 2010 - January was an extremely busy month. We've released XOOPS 2.4.4 and XOOPS 2.5.0 Alpha.

Unfortunately, we also lost a member of our community - Marcello Brandao, who lost his battle with cancer. In appreciation of his vast contributions to XOOPS and saddened by his untimely death, the XOOPS Council decided to induct Marcello Brandao into XOOPS Hall of Fame.

We have also filed our deposition in court in Netherlands in a lawsuit against our former Project Manager, Herko Coomans, for return of XOOPS funds and Intellectual Property back to the XOOPS Community. We very much appreciate the support from the XOOPS community - already over 190 XOOPS Community members signed the petition for the court in Netherlands in support of it, and and if you didn't sign yet, please sign it today

Highlights of the last month:

XOOPS 2.4.4 FINAL Is Released
XOOPS 2.5 Alpha Released
XOOPS is getting top spots in various rankings
XOOPS is Gaining Popularity, speeds up development
Marcello Brandao Inducted into XOOPS Hall of Fame
XOOPS Presented at 1st Linux Forum at Guangdong Province in China
XOOPS Innovation Award - for people who create something very unique and innovative for XOOPS. This time the award goes to to Yu Pin Lin (Sugar), from Taiwan, for their innovative work on the RB Framework and the SNS (Social Network System) Module and to Christophe Boceno (kris_fr), from France, for his work on various themes: Morphogenesis, ZetaDigme, CSS100 MorPho, and Xdt Standard.
XOOPSer of the Month Award: is given to XOOPS members who show extraordinary dedication to XOOPS, and go the extra mile for XOOPS. This month, it goes to Niclas Einarsson (Mazarin) from Sweden for his continues support on these forums, as well as his "Blue Move" contributions by working on XoopsPoll and Startup.

Summary

The XOOPS 2.4.4 FINAL is out, and the new exciting XOOPS 2.5.0 Alpha is out as well!!! The XOOPS releases are getting better and better. The three developers behind XOOPS 2.5: Nicolas Andricq (ForMusS), Cointin Maxime (kraven_30), both from France, and Grégory Mage (Mage), from Switzerland, did an awesome job and if you haven't try yet XOOPS 2.5, check it....

If you are a happy XOOPS user, let the world know - please blog about XOOPS, share your experiences with others, rate and review us on SourceForge and other Websites. We need to let the world know about XOOPS!!!

And if you're not happy with something in XOOPS, please let us know so we can fix it and improve! Better yet - help us fix it and improve it!

Remember - XOOPS is powered by YOU!!!!

01. Donations

If you like the XOOPS system, and would like to give something in return, you can make a donation to the XOOPS Foundation! Simply use the XOOPS Donation System and use your PayPal account or your Credit Card to donate .

Your donation will be used to promote and advance the use and development of the XOOPS system. The XOOPS Foundation is a registered not-for-profit organization in the USA, dedicated to promote XOOPS! All donators will get the Friend of XOOPS rank here on this website. Thanks to all the Friends of XOOPS for their donations and continued support!

If you wonder what is happening with XOOPS money, please read the 2008 XOOPS Financial Report

This month we would like to acknowledge following donors:

Ian A. Underwood: $25
Anonymous from Poland: $5
Nitin Shah: $100

Thank you so much for supporting XOOPS!!!!

02. New XOOPS developments

Current Releases

XOOPS 2.4.4 FINAL Is Released
Documentation on the API
Modules working with XOOPS 2.4.x (Babylon by Xoops)
Language Translations of 2.4.x

03. Team Reports

In 2010 we are re-introducing monthly Team Reports from our XOOPS Teams.

Core Development Team

Work continues on XOOPS 2.4.5, 2.5.0, and 3.0

Documentation Team

no activities

Modules Development Team

couple of Blue Move module updates

Theme Design Team

Team forming with Kris, Burning, Mariane, Algalochkin

Community Coordination/Support Team

no special activities, standard support

International Support Team

Lately the focus has been on local support sites, so a revision of the Support Site Guidelines have been made, along with a new mailing list (Google group) only for Webmasters of the support sites, to better co-ordinate our support. Invitations will be sent soon.

Unfortunately some support sites do not anymore offer the quality of support we are looking for so these sites will have to be removed as official support sites and no longer linked to from the International Support page. This will however, open the opportunity for other webmasters in these regions to start and maintain a local XOOPS Support site, which is a lot of fun and you'll help a lot by spreading our great CMS to your area and language. To apply for official status, use this form (login required).

For those of you that use Facebook be aware that you can now become a fan of XOOPS groups/pages for most support site countries/ languages. In addition we ask that you join the main XOOPS group on Facebook as you will, by becoming a fan might spread XOOPS to your friends, and who knows, maybe a friend or more will get involved. So please become fan of the main XOOPS group and the XOOPS group/ page in your area!

Communication/Marketing Team

Working on keeping the the XOOPS Website updated, and on spreading news about XOOPS. Updated several Websites with XOOPS Press releases, and send Press Releases to several newspapers/blogs

04. XOOPSers of the Month

Our "XOOPSer of the Month" Award is given to XOOPS members who show extraordinary dedication to XOOPS, and go the extra mile for XOOPS. Sometimes they do something spectacular, but most of the time they just do something everyday, but by doing it day-in and day-out, they make a BIG DIFFERENCE in life of XOOPS community. And we thank them for that!!!

This month, we would like to recognize Niclas Einarsson (Mazarin) from Sweden for his continues support on these forums, as well as his "Blue Move" contributions by working on XoopsPoll and Startup

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I'm from a small village in Sweden called Knutby (yes, THAT Knutby to you Scandinavians). Right now I live in Knivsta, which is a city between Uppsala and Stockholm.

How long have you been programming?

I've been programming sporadically since taking a computer science class at university, back in 1998. Mostly ASP and VBA, but also Java and JSP. I started with PHP when I joined the XOOPS community a little over a year ago.

What is your expertise?

In programming, nothing! However, setting up business/enterprise performance management solutions and running projects (especially combining business and IT) has been my forte for the last 6-7 years.

What got you into XOOPS?

I wanted to do a better web site for my floor ball team, and being the lazy guy that I am, I figured there must be a better way than to do it myself from the ground up. I looked into a few CMS's, decided to try XOOPS and I've been hooked ever since.

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

Easy to start using, easy to customize, modular, and a very friendly community.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?

I contribute wherever I can. Since I am not an experienced coder I leave the advanced stuff to the pros and focus on some of the small, but (hopefully) useful things that no one else gets around to doing. Basically, though, I just try to pitch in.

If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?

Chat functionality similar to what Facebook has. Not only would I find it extremely useful for all my sites, but I also think it would be a "bells and whistles" feature that could draw some new users to XOOPS and we need more of that (both users and this kind of feature). That's why I keep bugging you guys about this in the forums

What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

While not really hardcore programming (actually more like some scripting and a lot of project management), setting up a budget and forecast solution for the Swedish sales organization of a global pharmaceutical company.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

Besides spending time with my family, I play floorball and run a website for the team (yes, it's on XOOPS), watch Premier League football/soccer and run a website for my own league of fantasy football (yes, that one's on XOOPS too), and do some occasional computer gaming. During the summer I also spend a lot of time in my cottage on an island on the Swedish east coast.

You favorite dish and drink?

I don't really have a favorite dish, but I do enjoy beer and XO cognac. Since I'm a Swede, I also enjoy excessive consumption of vodka from time to time

What about movies and music?

Movies like Memento, The Usual Suspects, and The Godfather are on top of my list. When it comes to music I like different genres, but they all seem to lean towards the heavier side, e.g. Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Hardcore Superstar, and The White Stripes.

05. XOOPS Innovation Award 1

Our XOOPS Innovation Award is given to people who create something very unique and very innovative for XOOPS! We are clear that XOOPS can only succeed, when we push the limits of our creativity, imagination, and innovation to "infinity and beyond" . And therefore we would like to recognize people who create this "WOW!" effect, when we see what they've done. The XOOPS Innovation Award is not a monthly award, i.e. theoretically, there might be a month where we won't give one, but we certainly hope that this will never happen

This month the first Innovation Award goes to to Yu Pin Lin (Sugar), from Taiwan, for their innovative work on the RB Framework and the SNS (Social Network System) Module

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I'm from Taiwan and live in Taipei

How long have you been programming?

Since 2005 when I tried to hack WF-Section to became Magazine

What is your expertise?

UI Design and innovative new ideas

What got you to XOOPS?

One day I looked at a magazine story title stating "In 10 mins create a fully functions website". I couldn't believe it! So I bought that magazine and installed my first website, and am using XOOPS ever since

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

Easy to use with many resources

Why did you decide to work on the RB Framework?

Because Criteria handler not easy to use

And what about your SNS Module ?

I wondered if coding some SNS functionality by myself would be a possibility? Without seeing source code of other SNS sites, and then try to code it by myself, is very interesting

If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?

Rewrite backend UI like WordPress and more AJAX

What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

I am proud of my site http://www.snapshot.tw which won a prize in 2009 Taiwan new netking

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

Studying ACG (Animation, Comic, Game) like other Otaku

You favorite dish and drink?

Nothing really

What about movies and music?

movies: Otakus in Love music: Utada Hikaru - Flavor of Life

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?

Support UN Membership for Taiwan

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?

Maybe it's Japan's Akihabara, I could do crazy shopping there and enjoy Otaku lifestyle

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why?

Masami Nagasawa, She is my type and moe!!

05. XOOPS Innovation Award 2

The second XOOPS Innovation Award goes to Christophe Boceno (kris_fr), from France, for his work on various themes: Morphogenesis, ZetaDigme, CSS100 MorPho, and Xdt Standard. Kris already received "XOOPSer of the Month Award" in April 2009

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I'm from France, I live in Saint-Nazaire in Breizh/Brittany but my work (safety manager for major engineering company) requires me to travel.

How long have you been programming?

I started (HTML and CSS) back to 1996 ... and my first computer and website

What is your expertise?

Mainly web design (HTML and CSS), a little PHP and JavaScript

What got you to XOOPS?

A community of friends and another way to see the Web

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

Its simplicity, modularity and the community

Why did you decide to work on the Morphogenesis theme Framework, and your other themes?

- To allow anyone, without specific knowledge of HTML, CSS or PHP, to make quality themes
- He is now with the design team, development of cheat sheets, and documentation of different templates themes

If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?

A module to customize themes and templates

What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

Those that are yet to come

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

My son, mathematics, sailing and windsurf, aikido, Polynesian tattoos and photography

You favorite dish and drink?

Grilled prime rib and french wine "Côtes Roties" and whisky "Islay Single Malts"

What about movies and music?

No specific style or music (except jazz), I just let the feeling go and enjoy it

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?

Think about what you've learned with success in your life since your birth. It reinforces self-confidence. And always believe in human nature.